U.S. President Donald Trump‘s teleprompter operator will face no prison time and receive a penalty of barely more than half of his profits for at least 43 alleged insider trades on Kalshi.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) dumped the news of Gabriel Perez‘s settlement into inboxes on a Friday night at 8:14 p.m. ET, tucked into the end of a news cycle dominated by headlines of Kalshi’s loss at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Perez does not admit to any CFTC findings as part of his deal.
In addition to a three-year trading ban, Perez accepted an order to give back $107,539 in unlawful profits and to pay a $65,000 civil penalty. The CFTC’s press release refers to Perez’s civil penalty as a “substantial discount” he received “because of Perez’s exemplary cooperation” in an investigation that featured detailed evidence of him cheating repeatedly from December 2025 to February 2026 even without his assistance.
The release does not include any statement about Perez or his alleged violations from Trump-appointed CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, who regularly issues scathing quotes about state litigation against prediction markets operators. Rather, the release concludes by saying that the CFTC “appreciates the assistance of KalshiEX in this matter.”
How Trump employee cheated on Kalshi
As Trump’s teleprompter operator, Perez enjoyed access to the text of the president’s prepared remarks well in advance of the public. He allegedly used that inside information to wager on “mention markets”, or markets based upon what a person will or will not say in a referenced situation, at Kalshi.
The CFTC order lays out exactly how Perez took inside information and turned it into profit on Kalshi in at least 14 Trump mention markets involving at least 43 trades over two months:
“For each event, Perez selected ‘Yes” or “No’ trades based on a specific word or phrase that appeared in the President’s prepared speech. Thus, after reading the speech beforehand, he would place trades according to the words he observed in the prepared remarks.
“For example, he would only purchase a ‘Yes’ contract if he confirmed the targeted word was included in the speech, and conversely, would place ‘No’ trades when he saw that the word was absent from the President’s remarks.
“On one occasion, Perez changed his trading position after observing that the President had deviated from or skipped a portion of the prepared remarks.”
How CFTC handled Perez and George Santos differently
The CFTC’s most recent settlement with a prominent Trump associate highlights how light of a penalty Perez received by contrast.
Former U.S Congressman and convicted felon George Santos last month settled violations with the federal commodities regulator for a $35,000 fine. That fine equated to double the amount of profit Santos allegedly made by manipulating a single market on whether he would attend the State of the Union address in 2026.
The CFTC announcement of Santos’s arrangement does not reference to what degree he cooperated with the investigation, but the former elected’s lawyer issued a statement following the deal suggesting substantial help:
“Just as importantly, the Commission itself recognized Mr. Santos’s full and good-faith cooperation throughout the process, cooperation that assisted in the swift resolution of the matter. From the outset, Mr. Santos worked openly and transparently with the Commission’s team, through counsel, and the efficient conclusion of this inquiry reflects that cooperation.”
Santos accepted the same three-year trading ban issued to Perez, who allegedly committed many more violations with his inside information. Another similarity between the cases appears in the lack of public statement by Selig about the CFTC settlement with Santos.
